Before you employ someone

Before you employ someone you will need to:

• Have the right written policies which set out how any employees will be treated, protected and how you expect them to behave. The key ones are grievance, disciplinary, capability, safeguarding and code of conduct. There are a number of free templates available such as a code of conduct template from Charity Excellence: Charity Staff and Volunteer Code of Conduct Template and this grievance policy template from ACAS: Example grievance procedure / Acas. NCVO members can access their sample disciplinary procedure here: Sample disciplinary procedure | NCVO.
• You should also consider writing policies on recruitment and equality, equity, diversity and inclusion.
• Think about what it is you want the new person to do. Write a job description and person specification which sets out the duties of the role and the kind of skills and experience you are looking for. ACAS has a template which you can use to start: Job description templates / Acas. Include only the skills and experience which are necessary for the role so that you open it up to as many candidates as possible. Try to avoid gendered language and jargon. You can use an online tool to help with this: Gender Decoder: find subtle bias in job ads. Talk about your organisation, the work it does and why it’s a good place to work. As well as salary, say if there are any other benefits such as flexible working.
• Consider and explain the working arrangements for the job, including how many hours per week the person will need to work, their holiday entitlement, duration of the contract, and any expectations around home working and evening/ weekend work.
• Decide how much you are going to pay and what the hours will be. There is a legal minimum wage and many organisations choose to use London Living Wage as a minimum. Look at Tower Hamlets CVS and Volunteer Centre Tower Hamlets websites to see what similar organisations are paying. You can also look at the annual salary surveys from recruiters such as Harris Hill and Charity Job. You should try to build realistic pay into your funding applications – it is important that people are paid fairly according to their skills and experience.
• Identify what kind of employment is appropriate. There are several different kinds of status, including employee, worker or self-employed. There are rules around each of these – you can’t simply choose. This can be complicated, and there are more details here: Employment status and employment rights - GOV.UK. If you are unsure ACAS can give telephone advice through their helpline: Tel: 0300 123 1100 (Monday – Friday, 8.00am - 6.00pm). You can also use the government’s online tool, to help you decide the person’s employment status for tax purposes.
• Make sure you have the right systems in place to be able to calculate and pay people’s wages, contribute to their pension, and make and pay the appropriate monthly tax and national insurance deductions.